…by the superstitious?
Well, as the old people say, “school bell ring” on Monday for primary and nursery students, and folks were waiting anxiously to see what was going to play out. Guyanese do like to see “fair play” but they like to see a good “bradaar” even more!! And the Opposition elements – especially the Teachers Union – had promised a real “bradaar” if teachers weren’t allowed into schools – even if they weren’t vaccinated or had a PCR test to prove they were COVID-free!
But from the reports seen by your Eyewitness, it looked like good sense prevailed all around, ‘cause there were no reports of any confrontation in any school across our fair land. He hopes this will continue, because teachers don’t only teach what’s on the curriculum – they’re supposed to be role models for their young charges. And that’s so, even though it has to be acknowledged that teachers nowadays certainly don’t have the respect as during the days of yore.
And that’s because of how they handled themselves in previous junctures of our history. Too often they stopped looking at their job as a vocation, and not even a fall-back position to keep food in the pot. While everybody gotta eat, certain professions demand that their members be…well …PROFESSIONAL! And teachers have to decide whether they are professionals or not. As teachers, historically, they were the most educated coming out of the colonial era, and from that platform went on to educate themselves further to serve themselves and the society with distinction.
Unfortunately, leading to independence, teachers, like Civil Servants, allowed themselves to become pawns of the PNC. They lost a lot of respect when they supported the latter’s “80-day Strike” to force the PPP out of Government in 1963. They staged “sit ins” by refusing to allow students entry into the schools, and some kids had to step over them!! Teachers never recovered the respect their older peers had earned. Over the years, they maintained this stance.
So, if the present teacher cohorts come out and refuse to teach – even without giving the Ministry or their favourite target Minister Manickchand # a good “buse down” – they’d certainly be doing a further disservice to the profession – maybe even a fatal blow. After all, how will they explain the basis of their refusal to take the vaccines?? Are they going to use the science that they teach in the classrooms, or the rumours and superstitions they pick up in the streets? Maybe students should hang out on street corners?
Guyana’s poised to finally get to a position to compensate professionals. Especially teachers, who have a critical role to play.
They might lose corn and husk is they don’t act professionally!
…to protest
Opposition opportunists are cynically using the COVID hesitancy in their constituents to mobilise against the Government in other areas, where they’re claiming “discrimination”! But it doesn’t look like it’s taking root. It looks more like they’re suffering from the Chicken Little syndrome: they cried “The Sky is falling! The Sky is falling!” so many times in the last year and a half, even the faithful have tuned them out. One wannabe leader who got carried away with his Facebook viewers turned up to protest in front of the Ministry of Education, but on looking around, found he was in his lonesome!! Poor fella almost had a breakdown!!
What it shows is that the lived reality of the masses of people is telling them that the violent rhetoric of the Facebook warriors is just meant to fire them up to put their bodies on a line for the former’s self aggrandisement.
They wanna show a “following” to raise their stocks in the coming struggle to take over the PNC.
…in use of power
So, what’s a lesson for us after the 20-year Afghanistan War to “promote democracy”? That if a group doesn’t accept the fundamental premise that each citizen’s vote is worth the same, then it’s a lost cause.
